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All audio prompts stuck in female only. Ticket logged for two years and no fix!

Dadas

I have logged a ticket on that in 2024! No update. No fix. What is wrong with you Garmin?

It is impossible to have an audio prompt with a male voice in any language. Why would you have this choice if you cannot make it work. And why would it work in the past and doesn't work now?

This is not the first post on that. I saw it from Fenix owners and others. In my case this is a Descent Mk3i, but I had this issue already on the Mk2i.

Please fix it.

  • +1 in reply to Wayne Cavanagh

    When the voice comes from the phone, the phone generates the voice, hence the Android settings (not the settings in Garmin Connect !!) get over the settings on the watch. Only when the voice is generated by the watch, and broadcasted to the headphones paired directly to the watch, the settings on the watch apply. If it still does not work, contact the Support and describe exactly the issue, and make sure to tell them that you get the wrong voice even with your headphones paired directly to the watch.

  • 0 in reply to trux

    My Android phone has never used the voice in my Android settings, ever over 3 different Garmin watches.  What ever settings I have Garmin Connect at, that's the voice I've always got whether using phone or watch.  I don't normally use the male voice but thought I'd test what the OP has reported and I can confirm that he's correct.  Whether you set Garmin Connect or your watch to male, it only broadcasts in the female voice.

  • 0 in reply to Wayne Cavanagh

    Please read the quote from the official documentation, in my first post. It clearly states that when the headphones are paired to the phone instead of the watch, the OS settings of the phone may override the settings on the watch (or in Garmin Connect). I did not invent it. It is written black on white, on the official Support website.

  • 0 in reply to trux

    And I'm saying, after using 3 different Garmin watches over 5 years, and using headphones connected to either the watch or the phone when doing an activity during that time period, this is not what happens.  The phone has always done exactly what my watch does and vice versa.  My phones OS has never once over ridden the settings put in place in Garmin Connect.

  • 0 in reply to trux

    Well... I had a chance to play with it now and here are my thoughts...

    Trux - I understand you have a certain idea of how it works for you, but it doesn't work for me. I want to be able to listen to an audiobook, a podcast or music when I run. If I connect my headphones to my watch, I am losing this flexibility. But, just for the fun of it, I did connect my headphones to my watch and audio prompts languages and voices changed as expected - everything was correct. Just as I said though, this is not a solution that works for me.

    I am using a Pixel 9 Pro XL with the latest Android and all the latest aps and firmware versions on my Bose QC Ultra Earbuds and my Garmin Descent Mk3i.

    When I change audio prompts on the Garmin App or on my watch I can immediately see that the same change is happening on the other. So when I change it in the watch, the same change shows in the app a second later and the other way around. But that doesn't mean it has any effect on the audio prompts. They are stuck in female option.

    I went into the Android system settings and played around with those and set the text to speech to male voice and it played fine when testing within Android system UI, but my Garmin audio prompts are still playing the same female voice regardless.

    So please go and test it. Please don't tell me it is not Garmin's fault. It is. It was working a couple of years back on my Fenix 5 and it is not working two watches later (stopped on Descent Mk2i and continues to fail on Descent Mk3i). I logged a ticket with it and it was never fixed.

    And just BTW, I had exactly the same problem before I switched to the Pixel. On and iPhone 13 Pro I had this same exact issue. So this is not Android versus iOS. It is Garmin.

  • 0 in reply to Dadas
    Dadas said:
    I understand you have a certain idea of how it works for you

    That's not my idea, that's the documented way how it is designed to work. Personally, I could not care less whether the voice is male or female, but if you really so desperately need to have a male voice, then there is nothing simpler than going to your Android settings, searching for "text-to-speech output", and installing any voice you prefer. 

  • 0 in reply to trux

    Why did you reply before you read my whole post? I wrote that this setting in text to speech does not work. IIt just doesn't. 

    I even changed the default language for the whole phone and it didn't do anything.

    So before you start typing, please read the entire issue description. You're not helping if you are solving problems nobody reported. 

  • 0 in reply to Dadas

    Installing a different voice in Android's TTS settings definitely works. I just tested it again. When you installed the new voice in the "Preferred engine" settings, make sure the chosen voice sounds when you click down on the same page (Text-to-speech output), on the Play button. I've set the language to English (Australia), and in "Install Voice Data" I selected the option "Voice II", which is a male voice, then tested it on the TTS page, and then in Garmin Connect, and it is indeed the very same male voice.

  • 0 in reply to trux

    I think I sorted this out through trial and error. No text to speech setting will work on my phone UNLESS I change the default system language for the entire phone and install THAT SAME language with the voice I pick (e.g. Australia Voice II) and, FINALLY, set the text to speech to use the system default.

    First step as per my Pixel Android UI:

    System>Language and region>Preferred languages>Add a language (pick one - in my case Australia)

    Second step is to install Australia in the text to speech and pick the voice:

    System>Language and region>More language settings Speech>Text to speech output>Preferred engine (cog)>Install voice data>Your languages or available languages - pick one and select voice inside it (as per the screenshot below) 

    It will play each voice sample so select the preferred one and press the arrow back once done. Make sure your language selection matches the one in the previous step.

    Final step is to default the text to speech to the system language:

    System>Language and region>More language settings Speech>Text to speech output>Language 

    Only that way I was able to get the output in my headphones to the one I wanted.

    But any change to the region ruins it and changes the language I hear.

    I hope it helps others who have the same issue. Unfortunately none of the Garmin provided solutions worked for me and this led to frustration.